Group of rice retailers vows compliance with rice price cap
The Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines (GRECON) has committed support and compliance to the order of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. to put a cap on the price of rice.
GRECON national president James Magbanua said they will be holding a meeting with officials of the group’s 65,000 members to discuss and explain the Executive Order 39 which mandated a ceiling price of P41 for milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice.
The price ceiling took effect Tuesday, September 5.
“The national government assured assistance to our retailers so negative reaction was lessened, but I have yet to talk to all (regional leaders). I have a meeting on Thursday in the Luzon area, (with) the president of all different regions, to explain to them why we must not shy away from the challenge and that we need to comply with the EO, but this should be temporary,” said Magbanua.
“We also want to support the executive order although we want to raise our concerns as most of our members in the Philippines were not able to prepare for the EO. But being the president of the organization, I am asking for the cooperation (of our members) as we try to raise our issues to the national government,” added.
Magbanua emphasized that profiteering are not from the retailers as they only buy our rice and only increase the prices between P2 and P4 per kilo.
He said retailers bought well-milled rice at P50 per kilo and P45 per kilo for regular milled rice. The EO stipulates that well-milled rice must be sold at a maximum price of P45 and regular milled rice at P41.
Magbanua said a typical retailer sells around 20 to 30 bags of rice daily, and selling at P45 per kilo will result in losses of P5,000 to P7,500.
“We are losing P5 per kilo for well-milled rice, and if you multiply that by 50 kilos per sack, that will be equivalent to a loss of P250 per sack. Our losses will be somewhere like P5,000 to P7,500 daily,” he said.
Magbanua also welcomed the promised P15,000 assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to affected retailers.
“I have yet to see the guidelines for the assistance; what I know is that there is a pronouncement from the national government to minimize the effect of the price ceiling (on retailers),” he said.
According to Magbanua, he is urging retailers to comply with EO 39 for at least one week.
“We will bank on the assistance of the government. Retailers can comply for at least one week while waiting for assistance,” he said.